Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

This amendment made in the Senate would place a sunset clause in this legislation. I rise in support of this amendment. It was moved in the Senate by Senator Patrick. It needs to be said that sunset clauses are not unusual, especially when they're inserted in respect of legislation that would introduce new coercive powers, and are often complemented by a statutory review provision, as is the case here. What has occurred in the Senate is that—as we have seen in, I would have to say, countless national security laws, particularly ones that insert new powers—we've got a pair of provisions. One is inserting a sunset for four years and the second is a review to enable parliament to consider whether or not the coercive power should be continued.

Senator Patrick's proposal is that the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security be required to preview the provisions that are introduced by the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Police Powers at Airports) Bill 2019 in three years time. The purpose of the sunset provision is to, in effect, require the parliament to take the outcome of the review seriously. That's because after four years, the parliament will be presented with a choice in the light of the outcome of the statutory review: does it reindorse the measures introduced by the bill, does it amend them or does it allow them to sunset and thereby cease to have effect? We shouldn't be afraid of sunset clauses, they're not unusual and they exist in many pieces of legislation—particularly in national security legislation. I commend Senator Patrick for moving this amendment. Labor supports it.

See this speech in context